03-06-2025
HC acquits man sentenced to life for killing son due to contradictions in evidence
Bhopal/Jabalpur: A division bench of MP high court has acquitted a person sentenced to life by a sessions court for killing his two years old son.
Pointing to glaring contradictions in the statements of witnesses and medical reports in the case, the court set aside the order of the sessions court and acquitted the man.
The man has, however, been in jail for 12 years before being acquitted by the high court.
According to the prosecution, the petitioner married Sevanti 3 to 4 years before the incident. They were happy with each other till the petitioner, Arvind Dhurve, developed a relationship with another woman Savita and brought her home.
Quarrels started between him and his wife and Arvind used to physically assault his wife. He also sold her jewelry.
On May 14, 2013, he again demanded money from his wife and when she expressed inability to give him money, he assaulted her and snatched their two-year-old son Rohit and threw him on the floor.
She ran away to her parental home to save herself and 2 to 3 hours later, Savita came to her home and handed over Rohit, who was badly injured.
Savita was a co-accused in the case but was acquitted by the trial court. Sevanti told the police that she took her son to hospital, where he died during treatment the next day.
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She charged that her husband had thrown Rohit on the floor, inflicting fatal injuries on his body.
The court took note of the medical report of Dr Sudhir Shukla of Chhindwara civil hospital, who had examined the boy when he was brought to hospital in an unconscious state.
The report said that the boy had swelling behind his right pinna and some abrasions. However, the post mortem report, conducted the next day, suggests no injuries behind the right ear of the deceased child and only found injuries on the frontal part of the face and abrasions on the upper and lower lips.
He opined that the child died on account of hypoxia due to head injury.
The court said that it's clear from the two reports that the medical evidence was not consistent about the injuries caused to the child.
The court further pointed out that the mother of the child Sevanti, who is the only eyewitness in the case, was not also consistent in her statement and in her statement in court she said that the child in his sleep had fallen off the bed-table and dashed against the table lying nearby.
She was declared a hostile witness by the prosecution.
The bench of Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Anuradha Shukla court also referred to contradictions in the statements of other witnesses in the case including family members of Sevanti and the strained relationship between wife and husband at the time of the incident as reflected in the fact that Sevanti had also lodged a complaint of rape against her husband while allowing the petition and ordered release of the accused.